Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Going back to the series of ads that (although maybe not great) inspired me to want to get into advertising:

The magnificent Tango ads of the early 90s were one of those that completely changed the way I (as a 8/9 year old kid) thought about the product; and in many ways, completely changed what I thought about advertising. It felt like an ad and product that belonged to us, it was fun and silly and weird.

Now you all know the ad, but to show you how good it was; here is an example of the previous campaign from 1989 (second ad in)...oh dear.

Another ad which will forever be in the heads and stomachs of people my age was probably the best milky way ad ever. Considering I hadnt seen it in about 8 years when I first saw it online, it was a testament to it that I knew all the words perfectly.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Did they give those ads the go ahead. PC World, not known for its subtle ads, have really done it this time.

We know you want to promote your offers (Some of which are very good).We know you want people to go look at them.We know you want the hard sell.

But there are far better ways of hard selling than having your staff and pretend customers wearing tshirts saying "This is a hard sell" going over the product spec, stock levels and pricing in a completely uninteresting way.

If you want to have this kind of ad, make it a bit more knowing, or at least make the conversation more realistic and engaging. The only one which seems close to real life is the student one, but then the acting isnt good enough to make it work.

Oh and. Why do Intel and similar companies insist on ads reading the entiiiiire spiel. "This PC comes with an Intel Celeron 520 processor with core technology for easy multitasking and wireless ne....ARGH!" If we know what it is, we already know; if not...that doesnt help.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Wow, what an oddly contentious title... but its true.It may be for the US only (as far as I can see) but this ad (from W+K Portland I believe) for Coca Cola is actually good. Not only that, it gets across the usual Coke message of happy times and positive sides of life without resorting to the sickly, cliche'd and patronising executions so common in the brand work over here.

Actually, a more appropriate title would be Coke high on Wieden and Kennedy... well, they do have an office in Amsterdam after all. Well done.

"I swear to God that the following is absolutely true … and it will stay with me for the rest of my life.

So I was in Shanghai on Friday running a workshop. All went really well and by the end of the meeting, lots of people came up and said thank you for what I had taught them.

Anyway, this one lady walked up to me at the end, with a USB ‘Thumbdrive’ in her hand and asked if it would be at all possible to have a copy of the preso. Naturally I agreed and I plugged in her device into my laptop and waited for my computer to recognise it so I could move the file over.

Now my laptop has a program that automatically opens any photos or videos held on a thumbdrive or CD so while I was doing some other work on my computer, I noticed in the background, a bunch of photos had been uploaded. For some reason, my eyes couldn’t stop staring at them, mainly because [1] everyone likes the idea of ’snooping’ on someone’s photos and [2] my brain just couldn’t work out what the hell they were.

Then … like being hit by a truck … my brain finally worked out exactly what I was seeing.

HOME-TAKEN PORNO PHOTOGRAPHS!!!

I kid you not … they were very, very, very, very full on!!! I mean sooooooooooooooo full on!!!! I mean …. BLOOOOOOOOODY HELL full on!!!!!

For a few seconds, time stood still … maybe I froze, maybe I held my breath, maybe I just gasped … but whatever it was, she noticed something was wrong because within a nano-second, she had lunged for my computer mouse and closed the ‘offending’ program shouting, “THAT’S NOT IMPORTANT”.

I was soooooo shocked I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or just sit down and ask for a cup of tea then a cold shower - but one thing I did know was that there was no way I could look her in the face … there was no way I would have maintained control if I’d done that.

Weird thing is, this woman was one of the sweetest people in the conference - she was more likely to be Mother Teresa than Jenna Jameson … but she proved it’s the ‘quiet ones you have to be careful of’! Seriously, I saw parts of her that only a gynaecologist, waxer or boyfriend, should see but I have to admit, I did wish I could have had a longer gawp at the pictures but it was so out of context, my brain just took too long to register what it was seeing.

What made it even funnier was that my laptop was still connected to the projector … so her ‘front bottom’ was on display to the whole room - but luckily [for her] everyone was chatting after a long day so they missed the most amazing 7 seconds of any presentation, EVER!

So how did it end?

Well I copied the file and without either person looking at eachother, we sort of mumbled that it was ‘good to meet eachother’ and she ran out of the room while I had to sit down and try and work out if I’d just seen what I thought I had seen!

So to this poor lady who is the subject of my dedication, I thank you … you made a long flight back to Singapore, literally fly by and I have been laughing out loud at random moments throughout the weekend as I remember the weirdest few seconds of any meeting I’ve ever attended.

Oh and to people who think we rule technology rather than the other way round … don’t get too cocky … if it can screw over the nice lady I met on Friday, it won’t think twice to bugger up your lives when it so chooses! "

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Going back to the subject of the huge gap between the style of Pepsi and Coke; here is another old example of how Pepsi's ads just seem completely effortless and stylish compared to the contrived and stale look that Coke sadly seems to achieve.

I mean, thats mental. Again, it's going for the huge Honda approach, and it appears to be working. I just hope that the end result is as good as the amazing images suggest. The official Sony Bravia site is here.

And a final point. Notice how they are very very clear on using the word Bravia all the time. Its very well done, its driving the brand name into people's heads brilliantly.

After a long evening of ad related discussion with James and Andrew, I think bed is the best place to head. But first I should comment about the new Yakult ad. After the good but short lived ads earlier in the year, I hope this campaign will remain a bit longer.

I like it. No overtly new thinking involved, but it does convey its message well.The animation styles used convey each era brilliantly, and the voiceover is simple but effective, and without being dull or patronising.

Whether it will win over many new Yakulties I don't know, but it certainly reminds me why I like the brand.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

So apparently Smarties no longer contain artificial colours; which is good if you don't like hyperactive kids or crushed beetles in your food.

The campaign is probably the most "to parents" one that Smarties have ever done. Its pretty much full on "no artificials mean better for your kids" talk.

A brand that has had such vibrant and colourful advertising over the years could surely manage something more inspiring than this. The message is one parents want to hear, but otherwise... its just weak.